The taste of the citizen and of the mere peasant are in all respects the same: the former gilds his balls, paints his stonework and statues white, plants his trees in lines or circles, cuts his yew-trees, four-square or conic, or gives them what he can of the resemblance of birds or bears or men; squirts up his rivulets in _jets d'eau_; in short, admires no part of nature but her ductility; exhibits everything that is glaring, that implies expense, or that effects a surprise because it is unnatural.

In his review of Jonathan Lethem's Chronic City, Hari Kunzru maintains that what separates this novel from the postmodern novels Lethem clearly admires is that "it’s too good-humored to attain real satiric bite and is often content to drop a name instead of wrestling with the slippery ideas that might make Lethem’s heroes worthy of a true fan’s regard."

The young and very diminutive Danny Siegel -- he's Jane's cousin, and he's played by a fellow that I could swear was one of the would-be super-villain "Nerds of Doom" on Buffy the Vampire Slayer -- has a hilarious portfolio consisting of other people's work that he "admires" and precisely one, very hackneyed, idea, executed ad (so to speak) infinitum.